Oxford or Cambridge?
Hi all,
I’m a local student currently deciding whether to apply to Oxford or Cambridge and would appreciate some advice.
For context, I’m predicted A*A*A*A and am aiming for a career in investment banking after university.
At the moment I’m considering:
Both are obviously outstanding universities and I know either would put me in a strong position for finance.
The issue is that I’m somewhat torn between the course and the university itself. Cambridge Economics probably appeals to me slightly more academically as it’s more specialised and quantitative. However, I can’t help feeling that I’d regret not applying to Oxford. Fairly or unfairly, Oxford has the stronger global brand and international recognition, and if I end up having an international career later on that will matter to me.
So the three main factors I’m weighing up:
- Oxford’s bigger global brand. It’s a far more iconic university and more than a century older than Cambridge.
- Oxford PPE’s broader and more varied approach versus Cambridge Economics’s more specialised and quantitative approach.
- Oxford has a much better campus but I prefer Cambridge’s relatively less posh and traditional culture.
Does anybody have any advice to offer on making this decision?
Thank you!
Your outcome will be the same regardless of if you attend Oxford or Cambridge. What will matter is that you attended an Oxbridge university for undergraduate, but the specific one doesn’t matter. I specify undergraduate here because Oxbridge postgraduate courses (both master’s and PhD/DPhil) don’t hold a candle to their undergraduate counterparts.
Choosing Oxford over Cambridge purely for name recognition and social clout is silly. Just because Oxford will impress more clueless people in developing countries doesn’t give it more value than it’s younger counterpart. To those who will matter in your life, they are all the same.
Though if you ever leave the UK, then Oxford will probably be the better option due to its superior brand strength.
Depends on the college right?
Ppe
Nice try BritannicaAmerica
Obviously you should apply to Oxford.
Nobody actually sees Oxford and Cambridge as true equals. On many British academia forums people will try to say that Oxford and Cambridge are equals in all aspects of prestige and brand dominance but everybody knows deep down that it’s just cope. Everybody sees Oxford as more prestigious and it is certainly more famous internationally.
It’s the same with American academia forums where people try to argue that Harvard = Yale. Everybody knows Harvard is more prestigious and famous internationally whether they want to admit it or not.
Brand dominance rankings from an international layperson perspective is:
Harvard ≈ Oxford >>> MIT ≈ Cambridge ≈ Stanford > Yale > Princeton >>> Rest
P.S. If you notice, whenever people talk about Oxbridge’s fame or prestige, they are almost always exclusively talking about Oxford. Oxbridge may be named at first but once any example is being used they will single out Oxford. Similarly, when people discuss the Ivy League’s dominance they are mainly just talking about HYP and really just Harvard.
P.S.S. I attend ETHZ and have no actual skin in this game.
BritanniaAmericana alt?
This is a kind of retarded claim imo. If your goal is IB in London, ‘Oxbridge’ lumps the two together for a reason. Pretty much the same across Europe.
If you wanted *maybe* a marginal 1% gain in pedigree for the sake of an Asia office, or a 0.5% gain for a US office, then sure you could take Oxford.
But any marginal gain in rep (and really, I mean marginal when I say it) is completely outweighed by - for example - the slightly immeasurable impacts of better energy and passion from just doing what you enjoy.
Further, Economics generally gets better rep in IB and you only need to look at Cambridge’s alumni to understand the respect it gets.
There are many ways you could break this down, but the key point is you’re not asking which university lets you aura farm the hardest at the dinner table with the in-laws. Not only would the difference between Ox/Cam be razor thin, but more importantly for what you actually want (IB) just do Cam
I wouldn’t say it’s marginal. Maybe in England but as someone from Central Europe plenty of people don’t even know what Cambridge is. Everyone knows what Oxford is.
Also Oxford’s PPE alumni are far more recognized than Cambridge’s Economics alumni. Only Harvard has better alumni in the field of Economics than Oxford.
Regardless, the OP said they would like to pursue an international career one day. If they have any desire to leave the UK then they should take Oxford. Maybe in the UK they have similar name recognition (though from my experience British people revere Oxford far more), but everywhere else in the world it’s not even close.
Oxford would be better for their career and would be better for impressing their in-laws at the dinner table. It is a Win-Win situation if they can attend.
Oxford is miles ahead of Cambridge in lay prestige outside the UK. It’s the most recognizable British university by far. But choose whichever university you prefer because your career outcome should be similar.
I did one of these courses and will present a counter to the Oxford narrative. Ultimately, choose based on which experience you would enjoy more socially and academically. College makes a difference too. Both will open the same opportunities and be what you make of it. However, this will be 3 formative years of your life and neither will make a tangible difference to getting an IB job, so go with your gut based on experience and skills you'll develop, not brand.
Cambridge is stronger in the sciences - look at the number of Nobel prize winners from Trinity alone. Their mathematicians are some of the best in the world. Cambridge is also a stronger AI / tech hub, which will only grow in importance in the future. Cambridge Econ is far more mathematical and rigorous than PPE, subject to the modules chosen. However, PPE has more breadth (in theory) and will have a more diverse student cohort. I'm not up to date with their current admissions processes, but Cambridge Economics has historically been harder to get into with a higher % UMS and IB average required to get into the course than most other subjects at Cambridge + Oxford, the latter of which wouldn't even look at percentiles meaning I know several "average" people with As get into Oxford (i.e. higher variance) than Cambridge, which anchors more to achieved attainment.
Final point - simply look up Cambridge Econ grads on LinkedIn. If you want to do finance, they are more prominent across the board and a stronger cohort. That said PPE is well represented too and you could stick out more if fewer people go into finance. You can research the latest career outcomes for both as they should be provided by the universities. Also, although the lay person may be more familiar with Oxford - which is true - the people in the know at the firms that matter will not care. I've worked in both the US and Europe at top tier firms.
Cambridge advertising their Executive MBA programme on this website proves that they don’t have anything close to Oxford’s brand power. Schools like Harvard/Oxford will never have to worry about their prestige because literally everybody in the world knows them. Cambridge doesn’t have this level of recognition unfortunately.
who cares
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